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[vos]

When one starts a new game of Dwarf Fortress, the program begins the rather lengthy and complex task of creating a new region in which the simulation will be played.  Elevations are created, rivers are run, lakes are formed, vegitation is grown, terrain is verified, wildlife is imported and legends are recounted all by an invisible crew of perfectionist gnomes who play music all the while and reject nearly every attempt until they get it just so.  Then, when they are finally satisfied, a downloadable bitmap of this completely unique world is made available to view.   I have done it twice now, once on each computer, and each time the map is very immense, very unique and very impressive.  

Next, one begins the game in dwarf fortress mode and without fail there is as sense of sameness rather than uniqueness.  There is the same vertical division of cliff wall separating an underground to be carved on the right from an open wild area to the left.  In the open wild area there are a river, plants, and ponds while on the right there is a mountain that needs carving and always conceals an underground river about two screens to the right.  My question is this:

Why go to all the trouble to create this amazingly complex world when the game is first played, if every game is virtually identical?

How does the immense bitmap of the world relate to the reality that one experiences when playing the simulation itself?

I suppose the huge bitmap world might only be relevant to adventure mode, (which I haven’t really played much, yet,) but I couldn’t figure out where I was on the bitmap when I was doing that either.

The game itself is awesome by the way.  I expect it will be eating up a good many hours of my leisure time in the next few months.

[The Moonlit Knight]

In the next version (hopefully coming out in the next week or so), you'll be able to place your fortress pretty much anywhere in the world rather than pre-defined locations, and the layout of the map will actually correspond to whatever features are in the location you selected (for instance, a fortress on the coast would include a beach and water).

Also you can resize the area that you want to place your fortress in, giving you more or less room to expand.

Did I explain that right?

[Grek]

This is one of the new cliff faces for the next version:
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/imgs/local_map5.png

[RPB]

There is a little more variation among fortress sites than you seem to give credit. Explore around a bit with different fortress locations and you will find different terrains with different weather patterns, wildlife, etc. The trade goods you can get from human caravans will vary depending on what landforms the local human civilization has access to.

Mostly, though, the world map as a whole is pretty useless to current fortresses. It has quite a bit more significance when you get into adventurer mode, but that's even more incomplete than fortress mode at this point.

[Shades]

Hmm try picking any two sheer cliff walls in the real world. What are the differences? Materials, okay so we have that. Vegetation and wild life, we have that. Rivers/lakes, also in the game....

Okay so the cliff face is slightly more flat and samey than in the real world but that will change a little... I think you give real life too my credit for it's variation  

[Deathworks]

Hi!

Don't do auto-embark but go through all the preparation menus.

Choose a freezing site with no contact with other civilizations. If you are still disappointed, let your dwarves sleep outside.

Choose a haunted tropical site.

Choose a tropical no vegetation site.

I have to agree that within the mountain, the cave river-chasm-magma thingie is a bit single-minded, but even that is livened up by things like waterfalls and chasms within the cave river, for instance. And as others have mentioned, the next version will add a lot of variation, it seems.

Deathworks

[Asehujiko]

quote:Originally posted by Deathworks:
<STRONG>Choose a freezing site with no contact with other civilizations. If you are still disappointed, let your dwarves sleep outside.</STRONG>

The ice melted and everybody drowned  :mad:

[mickel]

I so want the next version soon... The thought of tunneling through a mountain is just too cool.

The samey and somewhat illogical areas to dig out have started to bug me too, as has the inability to make a good layout because of interfering ore veins.

With the new system and a y-axis, it'll just be too awesome for words.

I wonder how to do farming if you get an area without a river though...

[Pacho]

Judging from the latest video, I figure you can just designate an area to be filled with water, let it drain, and farm on that wet ground.

Edit:  Heck, you can make a water tank and open the floodgate whenever you need to irrigate the farming area.

[ August 23, 2007: Message edited by: Pacho ]

[puke]

quote:Originally posted by Asehujiko:
<STRONG>

The ice melted and everybody drowned   :mad:</STRONG>

that cant actually happen in fortress mode.  its only a bug in adventure mode.  try playing the game instead of making things up based on what you overhear on the forums.

[mickel]

quote:Originally posted by Pacho:
<STRONG>Judging from the latest video, I figure you can just designate an area to be filled with water, let it drain, and farm on that wet ground.

Edit:  Heck, you can make a water tank and open the floodgate whenever you need to irrigate the farming area.

[ August 23, 2007: Message edited by: Pacho ]</STRONG>

Hurray for irrigation. I hope you can farm outside as well now. While underground mushroom forests are fantastically cool as an idea, and functional on a small scale, it's annoying as hell to try to excavate a large enough area while being mindful of caveins.

I'd much rather farm outdoors like civilized people and keep the underground farms as a reserve during sieges.

Actually I'd much rather not farm at all, and I often get by on just trade.  

[Reign on your Parade]

Amen to that.